World Our shameless DC swamp-filler
After 100 days in office, President Donald Trump is looking an awful lot like reality star Donald Trump.
10 SUNDAY NEWS
Today marks day 100 of the presidency of Donald Trump. Many Americans simply say that they ‘‘feel’’ better with Trump in the White House. Indeed, recent polls showed 98 per cent of Trump voters would vote for him again. Why? The appointment of conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, his most prominent and lasting achievement. His strike on Syria. His tough talking promises about securing the border, bringing back jobs, and putting ‘‘America First’’.
This rhetoric is a marked departure from the measured and cerebral Obama, who some regarded as too internationalist. Despite stylistic differences, however, economic indicators show that little has changed (nor could it) since January 20. Illegal crossings at the border continue a years-long decrease. Trump’s signature border wall is increasingly regarded as a white elephant. And the President, as powerful as he is, cannot reverse job losses to AI, automation, or globalisation.
What emerges from this first 100 days is that new Trump is old Trump: A man who has spent his fledgling presidency making needless gaffes, spinning his own reality, breaking promises, and trading in family enrichment. It is, in a word, shameless.
Although elected on a promise to ‘‘drain the swamp’’, which presumably meant removing conflicts of interest and opacity from the US government, Trump has filled the swamp. He appointed his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to White House positions, barely skirting nepotism rules. He has not meaningfully divested himself from his business interests, including the hotels, resorts and golf courses that he, foreign heads of state, and legions of secret service agents frequent on the taxpayer dime. He doubled the initiation fee at his private club, Mar-a-Lago, to $200,000 just weeks before assuming the presidency.
He has made secret the visitor logs to the White House so Americans cannot know who is visiting or advising their president. He has hired campaign donors, and issued an unknown number of waivers to former administration officials who have become lobbyists, in contravention of his own vaunted ‘‘ethics’’ rules. He tabled a onepage tax plan this week, yet without disclosing his own tax returns, Americans cannot know how he personally benefits from it. His recent executive orders tightening immigration leave certain worker visas that his family’s businesses use intact. His former National Security Advisor, under scrutiny for possible crimes related to Russian contacts, resigned in disgrace.
Donald Trump always acted as if the presidency was straight forward but admitted on day 98 that he thought it would be easier. And so, in the absence of a meaningful grip on world history or geopolitics, the Trump presidency has become an on-thejob training program. It was apparent in recent weeks that Trump may have believed that Kim Jong Il still ruled North Korea. During Angela Merkel’s visit, Trump discussed negotiating a trade deal with Germany, despite the fact that the US doesn’t make trade deals with EU member states. This week he threatened to tear up Nafta, a trade deal he long derided as a jobkiller. He reversed course after being told by aides that Nafta is vital to agriculture and manufacturing in regions that helped elect him. Trump hasn’t filled 90 percent of his administration’s jobs, including critical diplomatic posts in the State Department. This as he escalates war rhetoric against North Korea while claiming to want a diplomatic solution.
This week the administration presented Americans with a long list of Trump’s achievements to date. This included rolling back internet privacy, making it easier for people with mental illness to buy guns, providing waivers for his officials to serve and three executive orders on immigration and sanctuary cities that courts have halted. Trump said that no president has achieved more in the first 100 days but Franklin D. Roosevelt passed 15 pieces of major legislation, Johnson moved landmark civil rights legislation forward, George W. Bush got a tax bill through the House of Representatives and Obama walked the US economy back from a cliff.
It was just more hype from our shameless president. is the enemy of the American People!’’ and ‘‘We must keep ‘evil’ out of our country!’’
His most tweeted words are ‘‘great’, ‘‘America’’ or ‘‘American’’ and ‘‘news’’ or ‘‘media’’. His most used hashtag is #MAGA for ‘‘Make American Great Again.’’ AP
He appointed his unqualified daughter and son in law to White House positions, barely skirting nepotism rules.’